The 108th general of Liangshan actually hid a traitor of the Great Song court, and even the author Shi Nai'an had already hinted at it when choosing his name.
This person is the same in appearance, in a high position, causing everyone in Liangshan to die without a place to bury, but sadly, most of the good men in Liangshan do not notice it, who is he?
Before revealing this secret, you might as well sell it to everyone.
What is the position from which the author Shi Nai-an wrote this book?
In other words, what was his purpose in writing the Water Margin?
Shi Nai-an
On this issue, I read a lot of comments on the Internet, everyone has different opinions, there are everything, but the theme is focused on these two aspects.
One aspect is that the author Shi Nai'an himself has chivalrous feelings, so he is to express "righteousness" by writing the Water Margin, "using a righteous word throughout the text.
On the other hand, it is believed that Shi Nai'an personally witnessed the corruption of the imperial court in the late Yuan period, so he wanted to embody anti-feudal ideas through the Water Margin.
In fact, the above two main points of view are somewhat biased, because from the behavior of Liangshan 108 generals, you can find that there are only "one and a half" who can really be called heroes and good men. ”
One is the flower monk Lu Zhishen who specializes in holding grievances and has Buddha nature, and the other half is the overly ruthless and decisive walker Wu Song.
As for the other Liangshan men, they can't be called "righteous" at all. Then we will analyze whether it is anti-feudal.
Looking at the content of the entire Water Margin, it is not difficult to see that the book is not against the Song Emperor, but against corrupt officials.
Except for the fierce and brutal Li Kui, who often clamored to break into Tokyo and take the bird seat of the emperor Laoer, almost no one mentioned rebellion against the imperial court or pole uprising.
It can be said that the Liangshan Group is just a group of mountain thieves and grass thieves, if you have to find out the difference with other bandit gangs, it is only a larger scale, and it is Fang La Wang Qing who can really be called the peasant rebel army.
So, what exactly is the author trying to express? The answer is very simple and chicken, it is to show the loyalty of the Liangshan Group to the court of the Great Song Dynasty, specifically to the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty.
But it's just that this kind of "loyalty" is more of a kind of foolishness!
Since it is to highlight "foolishness," it is natural to have a suitable leader, and this leader must not be full of evil, but also not full of good, in a word, he must always have a little unfault with him.
In Shuibo Liangshan, there is indeed such a person, his communication ability and leadership skills are very outstanding, not only willing to give, but also like to fight righteousness and disperse wealth, and even concentrate the four qualities of "filial piety and loyalty".
But these four qualities are flawed, and his so-called heroic righteousness embodies a sense of sentimentality, which makes him easily capture the hearts of all the good men of Liangshan, and even the good men who disagree have to agree with his sincere behavior attitude.
And his loyalty is the unwavering belief in the dynasty he is in, thus putting the Song Dynasty in a supreme position, so he is like a traitor sent out by the Song Hui Sect, specifically to lead the Liangshan Group, and the ultimate goal is to achieve Zhao'an.
That's right, this traitor is Song Gongming Song Jiang, who is known as "timely rain".
Shi Nai'an put a lot of effort into shaping the character of Song Jiang, first of all, the name he gave Song Jiang is full of metaphors.
The so-called "Song Jiang" homonym means "Song General" means the general of the Great Song Dynasty. And beyond that, there is a second meaning.
After taking apart the two characters of Song Jiang, it can be found that the word "Song" contains wood, the word "Jiang" contains water, the wood grows in the mountain, and the water converges in the berth, combined, the word Song Jiang is a metaphor for the meaning of water and Liangshan.
So a story of a general of the Great Song Dynasty went to Shuibo Liangshan to recruit An.
I have to say that Shi Nai'an is indeed a great novel writer, and he only uses a simple name to express the essence of the entire Water Margin, which is one of the important reasons why Water Margin can become a classic masterpiece.
In the author's pen, Song Jiang is a very orthodox feudal doctor, his heart does not belong to the green forest from beginning to end, and his mind pursues the foolish idea of the unity of heaven and man, and the king wants to die, and the subject has to die.
We often hear about "forcing up Liangshan", just as the so-called officials force the people to oppose, and the people have to oppose, in fact, this is not a true portrayal of Liangshan.
Among the 108 generals of Liangshan, there are many people who have other paths to take, such as Chai Jin, a descendant of the Later Zhou imperial family, Li Ying, a wealthy and noble family, and even some people who were deceived into going to Liangshan, such as Lu Junyi Qin Ming, Xu Ning Guan Sheng, Dong Ping, most of them were imperial court generals who were designed to go to Liangshan.
However, what I want to express is that among the 108 generals of Liangshan, Song Jiangcai is a person who is truly cornered and has to go to Liangshan.
At the beginning, Song Jiang's idea of not wanting to be reduced to a grass coat was stronger than anyone else.
For example, once he assassinated Jiangzhou, Liu Tang rescued him up the mountain, and everyone dissuaded him to stay, but Song Jiang just said simply, "This matter is considered in the long run" in response.
Later, Song Jiang borrowed wine to relieve his worries on the upper floor of Xunyang, and inscribed anti-poems to express his dissatisfaction, and as a result, a Jiangzhou robbery field was created. It can be said that Song Jiang did it on purpose, because he broke into the interior of Liangshan, so as not to arouse suspicion.
After Song Jiang went to Liangshan, he immediately set up a trilogy for himself, first, to stand firm, second, to overhead Chao Gai, and third, to become the lord of Liangshan and implement Zhao'an.
Under his leadership, Liangshan successively annexed more than a dozen mountains of all sizes, but one less mountain, for the imperial court, it is one less hidden danger, and the imperial court has become the biggest beneficiary.
After the completion of the first step, the power in Chao Gai's hands was naturally elevated, after all, people's hearts were concentrated here in Song Jiang, and even Chao Gai's former henchman Wu Yong was impressed by his "great ambition".
Wu Yong is a very purposeful and selfish person, when he found out that the wind direction of Liangshan was wrong, he immediately betrayed Chao Gai and defected to Song Jiang, and Song Jiang also needed to rely on him as the elder of Liangshan if he wanted to sit in the position of boss.
So the two colluded and devised a plot to earn Lu Junyi to go up the mountain, and then let Song Jiang step on Lu Junyi's shoulders and justifiably become the lord of Liangshan.
Next is the third step, Zhao'an.
To this end, Song Jiang first changed the main purpose of the Juyi Hall and replaced a Zhongyi Hall sign that had been prepared long ago.
This ostensible work is not finished, so a large apricot yellow flag for Skywalk was added.
As a result, Liangshan's concept of mission and values also changed, from robbing the rich to helping the poor to being loyal to the imperial court.
Later, in order to promote Zhao'an with one arrow, Song Jiang insisted on risking to Tokyo to plot with Captain Su despite the opposition of Liangshan, and also asked Master Li to take the line from the middle.
However, when he really got on the line with Song Huang, Song Jiang did not let anyone follow him, and he explained Liangshan's attitude to Master Li alone.
Among them, what kind of conspiracy Song Huizong and Song Jiang and they two have reached specifically, no one is clear, and the author has not particularly explained.
There is a question here, before the Liangshan army defeated the imperial lieutenant Gao Cheng three times, and defeated the privy council Tong Guan twice, it can be said that the imperial court has been offended, according to Song Jiang's personality, he cannot dare to go to Tokyo City to find the emperor without any promise, because this is tantamount to sending meat to a cutting board and being slaughtered by others!
This shows a possibility, that is, Song Huizong supported Song Jiang, Song Jiang has confidence, the author borrowed this plot, it is likely to be a metaphor, Song Jiang is very likely to be the traitor arranged by Song Huizong to Liangshan.
So after Zhao'an was promoted, Song Jiang couldn't wait to take the Liangshan army and requisition the powerful Jiangnan La, completely ignoring the life and death of the brothers.
And when the Fang La rebel army was completely destroyed, the Liangshan army was also greatly damaged, and at this time, the imperial court was completely free of local threats.
For Song Jiang, he had already achieved fame and became the biggest contributor in the imperial court.
Even if he was finally given a glass of poisoned wine, Song Jiang did not have any regrets, otherwise, he would not have pulled the only Li Kui who could avenge himself before he died.
In general, from the moment Song Jiang stepped into Liangshan, he decided to realize his dream of being an official, so even if he acted as a traitor, he did not give up.
Sadly, those good men who did not know the truth and just wanted to enjoy their lives in Liangshan were burned to ashes by this passionate heat of Song Jiang.